


Meant To Be

by stydiapanic



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Afterlife, F/M, Heaven, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 13:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11556462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stydiapanic/pseuds/stydiapanic
Summary: Lexie Grey arrives in the afterlife after the plane crash. As the weeks go by, she stops wondering if anyone else died in the wilderness, until someone she never expected appears outside the doors of Seattle Grace.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still trying to work out a few things about the timeline between Mark being rescued and him dying, so parts of the fic pertaining to that may be subject to change until I'm confident with it.

Heaven, as Lexie soon discovered, wasn't actually all that different to being alive. Although, she guessed she would consider it more like an afterlife than Heaven. Like literal life after death. Not much was different about it. At least, not much that she'd noticed. She hadn't exactly been here that long. 

She'd 'arrived,' so to speak, back in Seattle and fully intact- a fact for which she was grateful, having died with her lower body completely crushed and in the middle of the wilderness. And, she noticed, not only was she in Seattle, but she was right outside Seattle Grace Mercy West. And it wasn't like Heaven, not the way she'd pictured it. No one came to lead her into the light. No one called God announced themself to her. There was no judgement. No stairway to Heaven, no highway to hell. She just... arrived. 

She felt strangely at peace despite the alarming set of circumstances she faced. She figured that must be an afterlife thing. Looking around, she took note of the similarities between this world and the living one. The buildings were all the same. The hospital, the benches, Joe's..., and, possibly most comforting of all, there were other people around. Well, other ghosts. Spirits? Lexie wasn't sure what to make of herself now. But regardless, she was thankful not to be alone, wherever she was. She turned back around to face the hospital doors, and nearly ran into a familiar face. A very familiar face. 

"George!" 

"Lexie." He was smiling, though his eyes were sad. "What happened?"

Lexie was suddenly bombarded with visuals. The inside of the cabin as they hurtled toward the ground, the plane in pieces, debris covering the earth around her. And Mark. "There was a plane crash," she said, her mind somewhere far away. 

"Lexie." 

"Yeah," her eyes snapped back up to his. "There was a- a plane crash in the middle of nowhere. It's just me here, I think- I think everyone else is fine. Well, not fine, they're trapped in the middle of nowhere, but what I mean is- alive. I think they're all alive. I hope. Mark, Cristina, and Meredith, they were all walking around fine, and I didn't see Derek or Arizona, but... well, I guess we'll find out eventually, right? By whether they show up here or not?" 

"Right," George said, soft and encouraging. "What happened to you?" 

"I...," Lexie hesitated, remembering what Mark had said to her just before, thinking about what Meredith must be going through. She found it easier to use medical terms. "I sustained multiple crush injuries. Uh, a hemothorax. Massive hemothorax." 

George smiled slightly, "Not bad. At least you didn't jump in front of a bus." 

Lexie laughed, which felt strange considering their conversation, but she was grateful for it. "No, just had half my body crushed under a plane. We really don't have good luck with transportation."

"I guess not." 

There was a brief pause before her curiosity took over. "George, how does this work? I mean, I am so glad you're here, and I don't even know where to start, I- where are we? What is this?" 

George shrugged. "It's Seattle. It's the same as you remember it, only... everyone here is dead." 

"So, Meredith's house, it's-"

"Still here? Yeah. And you can still live there. You just won't exactly be able to contact Meredith. You won't technically live with her. And she won't know that you're there." 

"Okay..." 

George could see her trying to process everything. "As far as I can tell, you die where you lived. Or you live where you died. Basically, you come back to whichever city you lived in before your death."

Lexie's mind was going a mile a minute, trying to think of everyone she'd lost since she started at Seattle Grace, trying to figure out how any of this worked. 

"George," she finally said, "Is my mom here?" 

* * *

 

Lexie spent the next few weeks hanging out with her dead friends. 

She was starting to get the hang of it, at least a little bit. She hoped. She still had a lot of questions, and not very many answers. It seemed like, in the afterlife, you just kept... well, living. She waited for a little while those first few days, sitting outside the hospital, thankful with every passing moment _not_ to see Meredith.  And then a whole week passed, Lexie just sitting and waiting to see if anyone else from the plane crash showed up. Nobody did. 

So she went back to Meredith's. She got to be roommates with George again, and told him everything that had happened since he'd been gone. There was a lot to tell. And when she got to the part about the shooting, when she'd told George all the horrors Gary Clark put them through that day, she wondered aloud, "Do all dead people end up in the afterlife?"

George smiled sadly and responded, "I know this isn't exactly a Heaven to speak of, but I still think some people go right to hell." 

She chose to believe that he was right. 

* * *

 

It had been over a month now, and it wasn't exactly that the afterlife was boring as it was that... well, it was a little bit boring. There was that sense of peace, and of rest, but there was also nothing that needed to be done. There were no lives to save. There were no procedures to learn. There were no boards to study for. She'd long given up the notion of anyone else dying from the plane crash.

Regardless, Lexie found herself spending a lot of her time in the hospital. She wasn't alone in that, for which she was thankful, because being alone in an abandoned hospital with only her thoughts and the MRI machines to keep her company didn't sound ideal. But the hospital was home for her. Not as much home as it was to Meredith, she thought, but still home. Being within its walls comforted her, it reminded her of everything she'd worked for, and everything that she had done with the limited time she was given. 

She tried not to wonder about how much more she could have done if she'd lived. She tried not to think about what she would be doing this moment if she just hadn't been on that plane. She tried to reconcile herself with what she had now; more time with her mom, and with George.

It's nine weeks after the plane crash and Lexie is on her way out of the hospital. She's just walking past the first set of benches when she notices that something has changed. There's a man standing a little ways away from her, and though he isn't facing her, she can tell from this distance that it's definitely not George. Her feet move faster of their own accord. She notices that he's wearing dark blue attending scrubs. She's nearly reached him, broad shoulders, graying hair, stance she's seen a thousand times and she can't understand how he could be here but it must be him. She's mere feet away from him now, his body turning as he hears her approach, blue eyes lock onto hers and she's standing in front of him with the wind completely knocked out of her. 

"Mark?" 

 


	2. Chapter 2

"Mark," Lexie says, definitively this time. She feels wetness on her cheeks and realizes that she's immediately started crying. "Mark, what are you doing here- why- what, what happened it's been months since the plane crash, you should be fine- I saw you, I saw you walking and talking and you were fine, Mark, what are you doing here?" She's rambling and stuttering just like she always does when he's around and her tears flow more freely now, and she almost hopes it's a nightmare until Mark crushes her in a desperate hug and she's so stunned by the feel of his arms around her that she stops breathing altogether. 

"Lexie," he chokes out, so unbearably happy to see her that he doesn't think he could let go of her if he tried. She's too completely stunned to say another word, and he pulls back just slightly to kiss her, tasting her tears as he did so. 

"Mark," she says his name like it's a prayer as they both pull back, still not understanding. 

He looks at her with a mix of emotions across his face. "I don't know, I- I kept dying, out there, in the woods. I kept dying and wishing I could see you but that goddamn Cristina Yang just doesn't quit. She brought me back every time."

"Every time... h-how long were you out there?" 

"Four days." 

"Four DAYS?" 

"We were out there for four days." 

"No...," she pictures Mark grieving for her in the woods for four days, Cristina trying to keep everything and everyone together, Meredith having gone through so much and now losing her only sister, too. She sinks down onto the nearest bench, Mark following suit. "Derek. What about Derek, please tell me-" 

"Derek is fine. Callie had to do a nerve graft on his hand but he'll be back to operating in no time. They'll all be okay." 

She takes a deep breath, feeling steadier. "Why weren't you?" 

"I was... and then I wasn't. They treated me for my injuries in Boise, it was the nearly hospital to where we were. They transferred me back to Seattle, I broke up with Julia-" 

"You broke up with Julia?!" 

"Yes." 

"Why?" Lexie tried not to sound hopeful.

"I wasn't in love with her. I was never in love with her. It's only ever been you, Lexie. I love you." 

She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. She'd spent the last few months wondering if Mark had really meant what he'd said or if he just said it because she was dying. She felt a little bad for what Julia must've gone through... but only a little bit. 

"I love you, too. I love you so much." She kisses him again, still a little bit dazed. "So, you broke up with Julia..." 

"And then I fell unconscious for a few days. A lot of internal injuries.... And then I woke up." 

"Okay," the word came out like a question, Lexie still not understanding what went wrong. 

Mark took a breath. "Have you heard of the surge, Lexie?" Her facial expression told him she hadn't. "It's a term they use for patients who are terminal. Sometimes, they wake up, they get better, they seem to be completely fine. It's one last surge of energy before the end. And then that was it, I guess. My will states that life sustaining care be removed after 30 days with no activity, so... that's why it took me so long to get to you. But I'm here now, Lexie. We're here. Together. And there's nothing in our way anymore." 

"No, no there isn't. I guess you were right, Mark. We really were meant to be." 


End file.
